Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Western powers were “not coping” with their obligations on regulating the civil war in Syria.

Speaking in an interview broadcast on Russia’s NTV on September 26, Lavrov criticized the convening of a UN Security Council meeting the previous day as an unnecessary distraction.

Lavrov said the United States has stopped being an impartial co-chair of the International Syria Support Group.

Also on September 26, President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said the “tone of the rhetoric from some British and U.S. officials is generally unacceptable” and could harm both the Syrian settlement process and bilateral relations.

He added that Moscow believes the Syrian situation “is now really too amorphous” for a high-level international meeting on the crisis.

On September 25, U.S. Ambassador to the UN Samantha Power told the Security Council that Russia is engaged in “barbarism” in Syria.

Britain’s ambassador, Matthew Rycroft, said “it is difficult to deny that Russia is partnering with the Syrian regime to carry out war crimes.”